Jacqueline Ritter - punkyano@uniserve.com
I just had to respond to your interesting piece. I also read another article about Shania being just another pretty face. Oh brother. Just because there are some ug-bugs out there selling records, does not mean that those who have beauty are any less performers. There are many jealous people in the country music industry right now, and they are worried, because now they have to be a complete package -- oh and they realise that singing with a drawl is not the only way to get a hit song.
I know that in the music business, there are many types. Some are the "I suffer for my art" types, others are more focused, business minded types, who have a dream and a plan to achieve it. I can't believe that ANYONE could condemn an artist for having pleasing looks, because the music business has become a very visual "art" form. The idea (no matter what folky-music types say) is to MAKE MONEY and some even want to be famous and recognised.
Shania quite obviously is not a one hit wonder. She has a plan that seems to be flowing along very similarly to what Whitney Houston's management did with her in the mid 1980's. Vocally, I like some of Shania's warm tones, but she is not a soulful singer, and she is not at her best live, but that's OK, as long as Mutt keeps up his studio genius. I (just my opinion) don't believe that Shania's strongest point is her voice -- but her production is fabulous, and her songs have great grooves. I like the way she looks (and I am a heterosexual female) because I, too, like to dress in clothes that make me look/feel good, etc.
She could never have launched into the same (country) market or the pop market eight or ten years ago and have been able to stand up to voices like Houston's. She is, like MANY other bands and performers -- a package - and that is the most common type of commodity in the music business. It's just that country music, as we have traditionally known it, has not really seen what a packaged performer is like. It usually takes a long time for country performers to become polished (if ever, unfortunately).
As for the follow up album. It will be just as good, or better, than the WOMAN IN ME, because it is so ANTICIPATED. Just like Houston's follow-up, which sold a tremendous number of albums upon it's debut. People KNEW it would be great, because she was and is the singer to beat in the late 20th century. She, like Shania, is also very beautiful, and that has not hindered her looks AND she does not have to down play her looks just to prove that she can sing. Shania need not worry (and I doubt she is REALLY worried) about her next album not doing well. She is the new sort of "hip" type to be like in country music (notice all the stomachs on TNN and CMT we see now?!).
In this business, some artists and their teams decide to keep hitting the public with new albums (Madonna, Mariah Carey, Reba, etc.), while others milk whatever they can out of what they've got out there, and then take the time to make the next one even better than the previous one (Whitney, Michael Jackson, etc.). I like the latter of the two strategies, because the ones who do it that way usually have a superior product to offer, and it is always very much worth the wait - and music-business-wise - you can spend more money on promotion when you're not spending tons on recording new stuff all the time -- another reason for the success of this strategy. In the biz, marketing/promotion is usually no less than 2/3 of an album project budget.
....but I understand that music business is ANYTHING BUT a real business -- its a game!!